Re the Government’s “new improved scam” for the NHS (see press release 24 Feb 05). The new improved scheme replaces the old 133% minimum premium “0870 scam” with a new improved 66% minimum premium “0844 scam” – with a bit of disinformation about local rate calls and a £500 bonus for doctors using the scam, paid by the taxpayer  (estimate: 300 x £500 = £150,000).  ….. Sorry Mrs Jones, you will have to wait a bit longer for that operation, we are saving up to pay some doctors £150,000, I am sure you understand.

Is it possible for the administrators of this site to issue press releases from time to time.  This may help to mitigate the disinformation and spin put forward by others.

If anyone has a list of email address that are generally used for press releases to editors, political organisation and relevant interest groups, it may be a good idea to send a direct message to the moderators.

wrote on Feb 25^th, 2005 at 12:47pm:

Re the Government’s “new improved scam” for the NHS (see press release 24 Feb 05). The new improved scheme replaces the old 133% minimum premium “0870 scam” with a new improved 66% minimum premium “0844 scam” – with a bit of disinformation about local rate calls and a £500 bonus for doctors using the scam, paid by the taxpayer  (estimate: 300 x £500 = £150,000).  ….. Sorry Mrs Jones, you will have to wait a bit longer for that operation, we are saving up to pay some doctors £150,000, I am sure you understand. Is it possible for the administrators of this site to issue press releases from time to time.  This may help to mitigate the disinformation and spin put forward by others. If anyone has a list of email address that are generally used for press releases to editors, political organisation and relevant interest groups, it may be a good idea to send a direct message to the moderators.

If Dave and DaveM want a full time press officer I am willing to volunteer.

What we actually now need is for the Saynoto0870 campaign and website to be fully adopted by one of the national newspapers.

Has anyone approached The Sun or The Daily Mirror?

NGM said:

"If Dave and DaveM want a full time press officer I am willing to volunteer."

An excellent offer.

Yes, excellent idea, also perhaps getting 'Which?' involved, as they have all the contacts required.
I have written to 'File on Four' to see if they would be interested, so far I have only had an acknowledgement, but it is something they would do very thoroughly, unlike Watchdog.

The Press Release idea is a must though, especially if one the newspapers picked it up as a campaign.

:)

wrote on Feb 27^th, 2005 at 9:21pm:

Yes, excellent idea, also perhaps getting 'Which?' involved, as they have all the contacts required. I have written to 'File on Four' to see if they would be interested, so far I have only had an acknowledgement, but it is something they would do very thoroughly, unlike Watchdog.

Sadly I wouldn't hold your breath for any action by Which.  Unfortunately despite their supposed remit on behalf of the consumer they are an extensive serial misuser of NTS numbers and also engage in very suspicious inertial selling techniques to con customers into subscribing to their magazine.  But much more importantly they also failed to put in any form of respnse to the two Ofcom NTS Consultations which is surely both inexplicable and completely scandalous.

File on Four is a good idea.  They did a very impressive item last Tuesday on poor standards of road maintenance by local authorities who always try to blame the motorist for going too fast.

But I think the program that would expose this scam best of all is really Panorama.  The multi million pound scale of this scam and the years over which it has developed is right up their steet for a thorough and full investigation.

Totally agree about 'Panorama' being the best vehicle - BUT, is it not a BBC programme?!!  Which I presume will mean it will be controlled in the same way as 'Watchdog' etc.
Or am I just an old cynic?

wrote on Feb 28^th, 2005 at 8:04am:

Totally agree about 'Panorama' being the best vehicle - BUT, is it not a BBC programme?!!

It appears on BBC1 but I presume you are saying an outside production company makes it?  But unless that company has a vested interest of its own in 084/087 numbers I can't see why that necessarily presents a problem?

The big achievement was getting even You & Yours to cover it, given that the BBC is one of the biggest misusers of and liers about 0870 numbers of the entire lot.  And I don't care that Capita actually runs the numbers as it is the policy of BBC senior management staff that dictate the existence of the contract with Capita and BBC personnel who decide whether an 0870 number or an 0800 number gets used for customers to call it.

Hi NGM,
I have recently suggested in various posts that a mass approach from as many members & guests might be the way forward. What I think prevents this from happening is lack of time for many of us to research the who's & where's of sending protests.I have seen many suggestions published but tey are all buried in the depths of several topics.
If someone could provide a list of people & departments etc then we would all be saving a lot of valuable time & possibly getting over the 'apathy' threshhold!
Indeed a new section purely for this purpose, to which individuals could add their own regional further suggestions, could perhaps snowball. At least a lot of comment would be aimed at the same target & if done on a weekly or monthly basis would perhaps eventually be noticed.
For instance, whenever I have approached Watchdog as an individual nothing ensued, but if they received say 1000+ letters from members then it should have more impact.
What do you think?

How about producing a template e-mail that we could all send en-masse to serial offenders pointing out that their image etc could be tarnished, they always seem sensitive to this.(we could also send to Watchdog,Which etc).

wrote on Feb 28^th, 2005 at 11:48am:

How about producing a template e-mail that we could all send en-masse to serial offenders pointing out that their image etc could be tarnished, they always seem sensitive to this.(we could also send to Watchdog,Which etc).

As one who works in the field of local authority planning I can tell you that mass template letters never achieve the same impact as a raft of individually written letters all raising their own issues and requiring the authors to invest their own time and effort to write them.

So a list of who to write to (eg the right people at the BBC, the Home Office, DVLA, Department of Health etc) is a good idea but using a standard template letter is a very bad idea.  Each person writing needs to come up with their own ideas as template letters are not read and just stuck in a large heap as a form of lengthy petition.

Point taken about templates but the main point is that many people e-mail so that we show that there are lots of people pissed off about NGNs.

A list of contact points is a good idea TonyB, but I agree with NGM about templates not being as effective as individual emails and letters.